Monday of the
Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 8:12-17;Luke 13:10-17)
An old Catholic family was living in the South during the
Civil War. The family had a slave who
continued to stay with it after emancipation.
When the woman died, she was buried in the family plot. The inscription on her grave read that the
woman served the family so long and faithfully that she became one of its
members. Such is the kind of adoption to
which St. Paul refers in the first reading today.
Paul reminds his readers that Christ has freed them from slavery
to the flesh. They no longer have to
appease the desire for every creaturely pleasure. Rather the Spirit of love has been poured
into their hearts. Now imitating the
goodness of God, they can live for others.
Their expectation is nothing less than the glory of Christ resurrected
from the dead.
Sometimes we feel that the only consolation in life is
precisely some physical pleasure. Some even
try to justify an illicit affair as “only natural.” Christ offers something more both in at the
end of our days and in the current struggle.
The companionship we offer one another in the Church is palpable. Satisfying as well is the sense that when we
suffer, we join ourselves to Christ. Because
of him and for the sake of our sisters and brothers in the Church, we strive to
live every day in God’s grace.
